Jawa

Native to the desert planet Tatooine, Jawas are intelligent, rodent-like scavengers, obsessed with collecting outmoded and abandoned hardware. About a meter tall, they wear rough-woven, homespun cloaks and hoods to shield them from the hostile rays of Tatooine's twin suns. Usually only bright, glowing eyes shine from beneath the dark confines of a Jawa hood; few have ever seen what hides within the shadowed garments. One thing is certain; to other races the smell of a Jawa is unpleasant and more than slightly offensive.

Jawas understand the common language of the Empire, but prefer their natural tongue, a jabbering of low, guttural croaks and hisses intelligible to most inhabitants of Tatooine - at least to those who must deal with them. Jawas also speak a strange, variable dialect of their language that is incomprehensible to non-Jawas; this greatly aids their ability to bargain with outsiders. Moisture farmers often learn the hard way that it is safer to deal with one Jawa than to negotiate with a Jawa committee.

Jawas roam the desert world of Tatooine, collecting abandoned Droids, broken machinery, and any other scraps of advanced technology they find. They travel in enormous, treaded fortress-homes called 'sandcrawlers,' scouring the endless wastes in search of salvage. These migrant mechanics are basically high-tech junk dealers who gather things people throw away and sell them to others. They have even been known to take equipment off a moisture farmer's hands -- especially if it's not guarded or securely locked in place. After a few weeks of rewiring and alterations, these wheeler-dealers may even attempt to sell the equipment back to the original owner -- at a substantial profit, of course. (Most races would consider this treachery and stealing; Jawas consider it good business.)

Jawas are inherently paranoid and fear everything, but apparently have but two natural enemies: Sand people and Krayt Dragons. Sand People are reluctant to attack anything as large as a sandcrawler, but constantly seek opportunities to raid Jawa scavenging parties that wander too far from the mobile fortresses. Krayt Dragons have no such qualms and have been known to attack the giant land vehicles on various occasions.

Though cowards, if pushed too far, Jawas will use their weapons: blasters of their own design, pieced together from parts of a wide variety of mechanical sources. Reports also exist of entire moisture farms being flattened by sandcrawlers. Whether these rare incidents are accidental occurrences or some form of retribution is unknown, but most Jawas would rather scurry away than fight.

In the few cities that rise out of the Tatooine wastes, Jawas can be found excitedly fawning over the vast concentration of vehicles and Droids found there. Often their fear gives way to their obsessive tendencies in the presence of so much high-technology and the creatures must be forcibly and repeatedly frightened away. Many visitors complain of emerging from a cantina to find dozens of Jawas scurrying over their newly polished landspeeders, pawing and drooling disgustingly.

Despite appearances however, Jawas are accomplished repairmen with an innate knack for analyzing machinery. They may not understand robotic theory or repulsorlift engines, but they can get a malfunctioning Droid to work or an unresponsive landspeeder to operate -- at least long enough to sell it to a desperate moisture farmer.
Jawas take no interest in local or far-ranging politics (and probably wouldn't be allowed to if they did) and have shown no inclination toward either the Rebellion or the Empire. Their only interests lie in making deals and acquiring more of their precious technology.

Description:
Tatooine is one of three planets which orbit the twin suns of Tatoo I and II. The other two, Ohann and Adrianna, are gas giants. Tatooine also has three moons; while two of these, Ghomrassen and Guermessa, have fairly typical orbits for moons, the third, Chenini, has a highly elliptical orbit that swings it away from the planet and makes it seem like merely another planet in the solar system for long periods of time.

Long ago, preceding the time of the Old Republic, Tatooine was a gem in the stars. Its beauty rivalled even that of Alderaan. It was a world of large oceans and a lush world spanning jungle. It was inhabited by the technologically advanced Kumumgah until the influence of the Rakatan Infinite Empire arrived. The Rakatan were a species so advanced that, to this day, none have managed to duplicate their power. They sought to exploit the moons of Tatooine and eventually Tatooine itself, but the Kumumgah rose up in opposition to the attempts at a systematic violation of their world. The forces of the Infinite Empire responded by performing an orbital bombardment on the planet. The assault was so powerful that it boiled away the oceans of Tatooine and burned her jungles to the ground. The weapons even fused much of the surface of Tatooine into a single glass plane. The Rakatan left satisfied that they had left an permanent example of their overwhelming power, as a warning to all other races they would attempt to subjugate. The Kumumgah, however, did not die; though the devastation was so great that they had to undergo many changes in order to survive. Two races eventually emerged from their descendents, the Ghorfas and the Jawas.

During the galaxy's main expansion period, at the dawn of the Old Republic, Tatooine was thought to be a sun until further research revealed it to be a world covered with light-reflecting crystal sands. The planet's magnetic field also creates unusual conditions that confused early explorers. Whereas on most of the planet, temperatures rise to scorching levels throughout the year, one region in the northern hemisphere is always cooler, especially during the night. One explanation comes from the planet's history preserved in Jawa folklore. It states that Tatooine's huge, arid deserts were once a great ocean. Indeed, during the planet's first colonization, the multiple mining expeditions that scoured the planet for mineral resources found many clues that there had been water where later there was only sand. Sadly these early colonists also disrupted the Ghorfas and their interference is cited as the cause of the race's transformation into the xenophobic Sand People, who are now feared throughout Tatooine's desert. The Sand People are principally known as Tusken Raiders because of their devastating attack on Tusken Fort in the days of early human re-colonization.

Two of Tatooine's main native species, the Tusken Raiders and the Jawas, require special clothes and face masks to protect them from the glare of the planet's suns. The tiny Jawas are wandering scrap merchants who make their living by repairing and selling pieces of junk they find in the deserts. Among Tatooine's other inhabitants are the banthas, often called Tusken Mounts, rontos, dewbacks, womp rats, krayt dragons and eopies.

The settlements of Tatooine's sentient inhabitants are separated by huge expanses of desert. Many humans survive by collecting the planet's most prized commodity: water. Using evaporators, the moisture farmers collected the small amounts of moisture present in the air to irrigate underground plantations, while any surplus water is easily sold in the cities.

Poor living conditions are common to Tatooine's urban areas. The official capital is Bestine, but other important cities are Mos Espa and Anchorhead, none of them luxurious places to live. The main connection between Tatooine and the other planets of the galaxy is the Mos Eisley spaceport. Home to criminals, smugglers and killers, it is also one of the most depraved places in the whole galaxy.

The wild Jundland Wastes are considered one of the most perilous regions on all of Tatooine. There are countless hidden dangers lurking within its borders and only the boldest dare to tread its dusty desert trails. It is dry and intensely hot, but many species manage to survive in the caves beneath the rocks and they attract the large womp rats, that roam these spaces looking for food. The most feared predator in the Wastes is the krayt dragon, a huge reptilian creature, greater in size than a bantha. But perhaps the greatest dangers of all in the Jundland Wastes are the Tusken Raiders. Although the nomadic Raiders will generally set up their tribal camps anywhere, they have a permanent base in the northwestern part of the region. The colonists have little knowledge of the Tusken Raiders, except that members of this aggressive and wild species may appear suddenly in the rocky terrain to attack and kill, seemingly without reason. Despite these dangers, the region's most frequented area is Beggar's Canyon. Originally the area marked the junction of three different rivers, but now, only a maze of 60-metre-high cliff faces remain; making it a constant attraction for Tatooine's boldest pilots.